1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a delivery fly arrangement for use with a folder associated with a printing press, and more particularly to a fly wheel arrangement for use with a folder adapted to deliver plural kinds of folded paper or printed product copies having different widthwise dimensions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Delivery fly wheel arrangements for receiving folded printed product copies delivered by a folder at the exit end of a printing press and delivering them onto a delivery conveyor are generally used and publicly known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,865,307, for example.
This publicly known delivery fly arrangement is constructed, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, such that a plurality of delivery fly wheel units 7 are fixedly secured by set screws 8 onto a fly shaft 6 journalled rotatably in frames FF installed on both sides thereof. In this delivery fly arrangements, as shown in FIG. 5, for example, folded printed product copies S conveyed by a transport conveyor C1 are received by delivery fly wheel units 71 in the delivery fly arrangement, while their widthwise dimensions are being subject to control by folded paper guides GA mounted on both sides of the delivery fly arrangement, and then delivered, as the delivery fly arrangement is rotated, from the arrangement by stoppers ST mounted between adjacent pairs of delivery fly wheel units 7 onto a delivery conveyor C2.
Whilst, with the diversification of printed matters, the widthwise dimensions of paper webs to be folded and delivered by the folder of the printing press have become diversified. Namely, printed matters having appreciably different dimensions have come to be handled by the folder. Therefore, in the delivery fly arrangement having delivery fly wheel units fixedly secured thereto, if the delivery fly wheel units are set at positions suitable for the receipt of folded printed product copies having the smallest width, then when handling folded paper having the largest width, both sides thereof will project appreciably from the delivery fly wheel units on both sides thereof and hang down. Therefore, when they are delivered onto a delivery conveyor, deviation in their orientations, bending of them, and uneven pitches between them on the conveyor belt will occur. To the contrary, if the delivery fly wheel units are set at positions suitable for the receipt of folded paper having the largest width, then it becomes impossible to set the folded paper guides at positions suitable for the receipt of folded paper having the smallest width, because of the interference of the delivery fly wheel units on both sides thereof. As a result, when folded printed product copies having the smallest width are received by the delivery fly arrangement, positional deviation between them occurs, and in the worst case, one side of the folded printed product copies having the smallest width will slip off and hang down from the lateral delivery fly wheels units of the delivery fly arrangement, and when they are delivered onto the delivery conveyor, deviation or discrepancy in their orientations, bending of them or uneven pitches between them on the conveyor belt will take place.
Therefore, to cope with such difficulties, each time change in the widthwise dimension of folded printed product copies to be handled thereby occurs, it has so far been required for the operator to loosen the set screws, displace the delivery fly wheel units along the fly shaft to proper positions, and fixedly secure them by the set screws again.